Women in BJJ – May 2017’s Video Podcast

Taken as a whole, women are more coachable than men. And in what we do and in how we do it, more coachable means better – faster.

I’ve taught BJJ full time for 25 years now. I’ve been a black belt for 16. I’ve been privileged to award 15 of my own black belts, many of whom who’ve gone on to accomplish some pretty spectacular things within our sport. I feel pretty comfortable saying I know what I’m doing. And when I hear the occasional disparaging comment, or read the occasional poorly written diatribe regarding women in our art, I know immediately that the person speaking doesn’t really understand Jiu-Jitsu.

I’ve written before about keeping our daughters safe – The ABC’s of Keeping Our Daughters Safe (part 1), (part 2) and (part 3) – but the benefits of BJJ for women of all ages extends way beyond personal safety. That’s why it’s so important for of us, as coaches, to remove any barriers to participation that we can.

It is easy to make strong people stronger. People who are strong mentally, emotionally, and physically, regardless of gender, are not hard to help. And, by definition, they are also the people who need our art the least.

To take folks who may not be strong, who may have never perceived of themselves as strong, who, for their whole life thus far, have never known what it means to walk the earth and feel strong – and to help them realize their strength – that, more than anything else I’ve done as a coach, feels good.

To bring our art to those who need it the most should be one our most important mandates.

There are women who can walk into a co-ed class and stick through all the hard lessons required for mastery in Jiu-Jitsu. But there are also a lot of really good women who don’t yet realize that they too could do such a thing. Having smart, kind coaches, and women’s only classes, helps open a door to those women. I want as many of those doors open as possible.

I’ve written about the importance of community – The Necessity of Tribe. And that extraordinary side effect of Jiu-Jitsu, the joy of connection we feel as social primates, is just as important for women as it is for men. That’s something my wife, Salome, noticed. And that’s one of reasons she decided to start the yearly, SBG women’s camp. To gather, learn, socialize, connect, grow – it is a beautiful thing we should all support.

With that said, our next ladies camp will be June 9th, 10th & 11th. You’ll find the poster and sign up info located just under this month’s video.

It’s open to all women, SBG or otherwise. And I promise, you’ll have a great time.

When I think about my daughters future, one of the things that brings me a lot of joy is knowing how many Strong, Brave, and Genuine women they will have around as examples; many of whom our featured here, in our SBG video podcast of the month.